Withering moon lit rose

Chapter 26

"Atsushi?..." He questioned, a slight bit of hope laced into his voice. The white haired man had a mask covering the bottom half of his face. Obviously a voice changer of sorts. But while Akutagawa looked at Atsushi in pure delight, the man looked at Akutagawa in fear. As if he was a stranger who would kill him on sight.

"Atsushi?" Kyoka cried, slowly making her way towards the man. Atsushi appeared to recognise her, he raised an eyebrow at her. "You look familiar?" He questioned aloud, Kyoka froze in place.

"Akutagawa... Why doesn't he recognise me..." Tears began to well in her eyes, Kyoka was so heart broken. She'd missed him so much, the one family figure she assumed to have had left had abandoned her at fourteen. Atsushi quickly tried to pull his arm from Akutagawa's grasp.

"Your, The Akutagawa! The mad dog of the Mafia!" He looked so afraid, it broke Akutagawa slightly to see him like this. Despite his lack of interest in harming the man, Ryuunosuke landed a square punch on his face. Atsushi was out in seconds.

"Why would you do that!?" Kyoka cried as Atsushi fell into Ryuunosuke's arms. He moved Atsushi into a bridle style in his arms. He smirked slightly at remembering the last time he held him like this.

"Izumi, could you remove the mask on his face? I don't think it best if he's unconscious with it on." Kyoka nodded and carefully removed it, underneath his face almost smooth except for a scar apparent on his left cheek. This struck as odd to the pair, they were aware of Atsushi's impeccable healing ability. He had never had any scars from Akutagawa attacking him, so why did he have one now?

~

"Akutagawa!" Dazai came crashing into the office screaming the man's name. He'd been out for a meal with Chuuya on his day off. When Kunikida informed him of Atsushi's reappearance he'd left the restaurant in an instant without giving Chuuya a reason. When he found Akutagawa he was sat on a chair beside Atsushi who was currently unconscious. Dazai pressed his hand against his forehead, as he began to mutter to himself.

"Dazai what's wrong?" Kunikida questioned as he tried to grasp at the man's arms who pushed him away almost instantly.

"How long... How long has he been here?" He asked, ignoring Kunikida's question entirely.

"Roughly two hours. Why?" Dazai began to pace back and forth across the room, his arms hugged close to his chest.

"This is bad. This is really, really bad!" He began to pull at his hair until Kunikida forced him into a chair.

"Is this due to you not being able to tell us anything?" Kunikida questioned, levelling himself to Dazai's height. The man nodded solemnly.

"Can you at least tell me what will happen if we keep Atsushi here?" Dazai sat in silence for a while contemplating his question. He finally raised his gaze to meet with Akutagawa, he seemed to question something in his eyes before looking away.

"Someone will suffer." Was his first response, "The minute he wakes up, nobody stop him if he desires to leave." With that he left the room and went to sit on the roof, alone.

That was until Chuuya decided to visit the agency in search of his husband.

"Finally found you. What was that about? You made me look like a fool being left behind." Dazai just rolled his head slightly towards Chuuya, he didn't realise at first but Dazai had a cigarette in hand.

"Tch." Chuuya kicked at Dazai's hand resulting in the cigarette falling to the ground before being extinguished by Chuuya's foot.

"I thought you said you'd stop smoking last christmas. You'll end up in the same state after what happened with Oda-"

"Don't say his name!" Dazai hollered at the man while still not meeting his eyes. Chuuya extended his hand to Dazai, they both remained like that for a couple of minutes before Chuuya grasped Dazai's wrist and pulled him to his feet. He remained motionless while he stood. Chuuya knew he wouldn't be in the mood to change soon so he pulled Dazai towards him.

Tightened his arms around his torso, "Come on, I know you want to cry."

Dazai buried his face into the crook of Chuuya's neck, quiet sobs could be heard by Chuuya alone as he comforted the man. The pair began to slowly sink to their knees, Chuuya slowly caressed Dazai's hair in an attempt to soothe him.

"Okay, you gonna tell me what happened?" Dazai stifled a sob and allowed his face to be seen by Chuuya. "Atsushi. He's been found." Chuuya looked bewildered, "No, you're joking right?" Chuuya gave an awkward smile. He didn't believe it. He couldn't believe it.

The look Dazai gave Chuuya confirmed his words. He was here.

And it wasn't going to end well for most of them.